M. Emmet Walsh Movies and Career Information

Michael Emmet Walsh (born March 22, 1935) is an American actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television productions. Walsh, an Irish American, was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Kathrine (née Sullivan) and Harry Maurice Walsh, Sr., a customs agent. He was raised in a rural area of Vermont. After attending college at Clarkson University, he came to prominence in the 1978 crime drama, Straight Time, in which he played a sadistic parole officer. One of his most acclaimed roles was as Bryant in Ridley Scott's cult classic Blade Runner. Another notable role is as the double-crossing private detective in Blood Simple (1984) for which he won the 1986 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Walsh made occasional guest appearances on Home Improvement as Tim Allen's father-in-law. In 1992 he appeared as a powerful US Senator in David Winning's Killer Image, playing Michael Ironside's brother. In Christmas with the Kranks, he played one of Allen's neighbors. He also appeared as Alex Lembeck, a motorcycle cop who appointed himself as Sandy Stockton's (Sandy Duncan) chaperone/ protector on The Sandy Duncan Show in 1972. According to Roger Ebert's Stanton-Walsh Rule,